Judith Mutchler

A memorial service for both Judy and Marilyn will be held Monday, June 6, 2022 at 1:00 p.m.  at Northwood Evangelical Lutheran Chruch in Northwood. A visitation will be held from 12:00 p.m. until the time of the service at the church. God bless their memories.

Judith M. Mutchler, 95, of Northwood, ND passed away Friday, February 18, 2022, after a short battle with lung cancer at Northwood Deaconess Health Center. 

Judith was born February 27, 1926, on a farm in rural Northwood to Michael and Hannah Stavem Paulson. She graduated from Northwood High School and went on to receive a Nursing Degree at St Luke’s School of Nursing in Fargo in 1947.

She married James Mutchler in December of 1946 while on leave from serving in the army in Italy during WW2. They had 3 children, two of which were permanent residents of the state hospital in Grafton, ND until their deaths. 

After their Son, Timothy returned from collage and came back to farm, Jim and Judy joined the Peace Corps and spent 2 years in Costa Rica assisting the Ministry of Agriculture. Judy spent that time working in rural areas of CR attending to malnourished children. It was an experience they remembered fondly and frequently talked about. After their Peace Corps tour was finished, they spent the next 27 years living in Merritt Island, Florida and Hendersonville, NC ultimately returning to the farm in Northwood in 2003. During that time, they were away from North Dakota Judy took many art classes and became an avid oil and watercolor artist, selling many of her original works at various art fairs. Every medium she put her hand to she produced beautiful things including many original woven baskets from natural products, many of which remain in family. 

After her husband, Jim passed in 2007, Judy would spend her summers on the farm and her winters with Tim and Lynn in Ft Myers, Florida enjoying the weather and making many new friends which she became very fond of. She especially liked going dancing right up to her last winter in Florida. She never tired of seeing her grand kids and great grandkids pop in for a visit, a game of cards with always an Oreo cookie as a treat. She amazed us doing all her yard work including mowing on the 6' mower until last fall. 

She is survived by her sister, Ruth, her son, Tim (Lynn); her grandchildren: Jennifer (Michael) Anderson, Amy (Boyd) Boll, James (Amber) Mutchler, Alison (CJ) Erickson, Tracy (Ben) Iverson and Timothy (Jennifer) Mutchler along with 21 great grandchildren. 

She was preceded in death by her parents; siblings: Jim, Alna and Cecelia; her husband, Jim; and two children, Marilyn and Daniel. 

Marilyn Mutchler, 73, passed away at the Unity Medical Center in Grafton, ND on December 15, 2020. Marilyn suffered from PKU her whole life, a genetic anomaly undiscovered until years later, making recovery impossible. A condition also shared by her brother Daniel.